The Washington Post’s Amazon reporter was one of the hundreds of employees let go from the Jeff Bezos-owned newspaper in the wake of Wednesday’s devastating layoffs.
Caroline O’Donovan, a technology reporter who covered the tech behemoth founded by her billionaire boss, confirmed in a response to The Guardian’s media reporter, Jeremy Barr, that she was among the staffers affected.
“haven’t posted here in years but uh… some news,” O’Donovan wrote in a post on X. “i’m out, along with just a ton of the best in the biz. horrible.”
“Today I was laid off from my job covering Amazon for Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post,” she confirmed in a later post.
Another post by O’Donovan noted that most of her stories about Amazon included a disclaimer clarifying Bezos’s relationship to the tech company and the newspaper, both of which he owns.
“That statement seems especially stark today,” she wrote.
O’Donovan joined the Post as a tech reporter in 2022 after covering tech and labor at BuzzFeed News.
Among the biggest casualties of the Post’s dramatic restructuring efforts were the newspaper’s sports, books, metro, and international desks, as well as its daily news podcast Post Reports.
A former employee told the Daily Beast that the newspaper’s entire consumer technology beat was gutted, and that only six to eight staffers remain on the publication’s technology desk.
The employee, who spoke on background, added that only two editors and three reporters remain in the newspaper’s San Francisco office.
Another employee who was laid off told the Daily Beast that most staff did not see the layoffs coming.
“Most people this morning are saying ‘I’m shocked,’ and that’s after multiple meetings over the past couple weeks where people said it’s going to be worse than we thought,” the employee said. “It’s still somehow worse than we thought.”
While exact numbers are not yet clear, multiple reports indicate that hundreds of staff members were affected, representing about a third of the newsroom.
“It’s an absolute bloodbath,” an employee not authorized to speak publicly told The Guardian.
The newspaper has faced a series of controversies under its billionaire tech overlord, Bezos, 62.
At Bezos’s suggestion, The Post’s opinion pages experienced a stark pro-Trump shift, a notable departure for the left-leaning publication.
The Post also came under fire in 2024 after its publisher, Will Lewis, announced the paper would not endorse a presidential candidate in the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, or in future races, a practice it had followed regularly since 1976, except in 1988.
An employee who was laid off told the Daily Beast that Lewis was absent from Wednesday morning’s staff call and has not been present much at all since his appointment.
Most recently, Bezos failed to address an FBI raid of the home of a Washington Post reporter, Hannah Natanson, who took her personal and work computers.
In a note to staffers, the newspaper’s executive editor, Matt Murray, said Wednesday’s staffing cuts reflect a shift to “concentrate on areas that demonstrate authority, distinctiveness, and impact.”
“Today’s news is painful. These are difficult actions,” Murray said. “We are proud of, and grateful for, the many valued colleagues whose talents and passion have contributed to The Post over many years.”
Former executive editor of the newspaper, Marty Baron, said in a statement that Wednesday’s layoffs were “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”
The Washington Post Newspaper Guild shared a statement on X saying they “vehemently oppose” additional layoffs, adding that “there is still time to save the Post.”
The guild is hosting a #SaveThePost rally on Thursday at noon at the paper’s D.C. office.
“If Jeff Bezos is no longer willing to invest in the mission that has defined this paper for generations and serve the millions who depend on Post journalism, then The Post deserves a steward who will,” the guild’s statement concluded.
Heather Kelly, a San Francisco-based technology reporter for the Post who was laid off, told the Daily Beast she was “absolutely devastated” by the news, “not just for myself, but for my amazing, talented colleagues.”
“It’s just a really bad way to see it end,” Kelly, who has two children and was widowed in August, which the company was aware of, said. “I don’t know what’s next, but I’m not optimistic.”
The Daily Beast reached out to the Washington Post Newspaper Guild for comment.
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